I suspect that Shrub's cronies might turn it around for him, unfortunately. To begin with, did any of us know that foreign companies were already running them?--not only Britain, but potentially CHINA? So is our position that this type of operation needs to be nationalized?
LIMBOsevic said he had spent this week educating himself and generally went down on the Shrubbite stringpullers' side, saying that there are NO U.S. companies who do this type of work. In the article below Democratic Senator MURRAY is seen sponsoring China into the Northwest ports based on the same argument.
To me, the bottom line is that perpetrators and abettors should not be allowed to profit from crimes. The other thing is, how come we won't deal with Hamas until they renounce their past, STOP their nefarious activities, and acknowledge Israel, yet has the UAE has done any of those things?
The other bottom line is that Shrub DIDN'T KNOW about the deal till we all heard. Isn't he supposed to be our PROTECTOR? And isn't he NOT supposed to be the puppet we have said he is all along? Or is he just distancing himself from his trademark cronyism. He has certainly turned Old Conservatism on its head: Going for WILSONian nation-building and 19th Century British colonialism, spending like a drunken Librul, and now standing for non-discrimination on racial grounds (for Arabs).
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http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_41_18/ai_95358027China eyes U.S. ports: concerns are being raised about the involvement in a Pentagon-funded port-security program of a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party leadership - Nation: homeland security
The Smart and Secure Trade-lanes (SST) system, driven by shipping, port services and communications companies with the support of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), is supposed to improve supply-chain and transportation-container security. ....
So far, so good. But alarm bells are sounding about the involvement in SST of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. Advocates say that Hutchison Whampoa is the world's largest seaport owner and administrator, with a history beginning in the 19th century when the firm was founded by the British. With partners PSA and P&O Ports, Hutchison Whampoa handles 70 percent of the world's container traffic. In a statement to INSIGHT, the company says it is a purely commercial enterprise and rejects allegations that it might be influenced by the Chinese government.
But those familiar with Hutchison Whampoa's ties to the Chinese military are concerned. ....
"The Chinese have been working hard to get into the ports near Seattle. They are among our most vital commercial ports and are home to key U.S. military bases." ....
Sen. Murray defends Hutchison Whampoa's involvement in the pilot program. "They are one of the largest port operators in the world," says Webster. "To ignore Hutchison Whampoa is to ignore some of the largest port facilities in the world that send millions of containers to the United States every year." The company, he says, is not receiving U.S. tax dollars earmarked for the project.
INSIGHT first reported about Hutchison Whampoa's control of ports at both ends of the Panama Canal following the U.S. military pullout from Panama in 1999
. The report raised concerns about Hutchison Whampoa's reported connections to the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese Communist Party leadership, and how its control of Panamanian ports could threaten U.S. interests.
Clinton White House spokesman Joe Lockhart dismissed the INSIGHT story and the surrounding controversy as "silly stuff." ....
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